AZ Christmas

Although we were sad to see Ron and Tammy leave Kentucky, less than a year after us moving here, we are grateful they moved somewhere pretty fun for us to visit.  It makes for a pretty beautiful Christmas! This year we spent almost 2 weeks in Arizona, most of it was perfect...but we had a few "setbacks"...

1. For the few days before leaving, I was having some minor tooth pain. It was hard to localize, but it came and went, controlled pretty well by ibuprofen.  Tuesday after work, I met Grant and thought we'd go by the dental school to just take an x-ray and make sure everything looked ok, but unfortunately everyone was gone for the day, so we just went home and prepared for our flight the next morning. We woke up early Wednesday morning for our flight, I was still hurting a bit, but not unbearable. We flew from Lexington to Atlanta to Phoenix, and about mid way through our flight from ATL to PHX, the pain became unbearable. I had a log on my phone of the Tylenol and ibuprofen I had been taking, to make sure I didn't fry by liver or ulcer my stomach, but to try to keep the pain under control. At 30,000 feet, still hours from Phoenix, the pain brought me to tears. I could do nothing besides sit there and hurt. I had new magazines, a book, my tablet, etc but could not even think about doing anything. It was terrible.Lucky for me, I racked my brain for resources in Arizona and realized my mom has a cousin who is a dentist in Mesa (who we know pretty well since they are part of our Carpinteria beach camping group) and after landing and still having no relief I called him up and made an appointment for the next day. He called me in some antibiotics and pain medication (which still did NOT help) and I survived until my appointment Thursday morning. We did some tests and found that I needed a root canal in a tooth I had previously had some problems in. I have never been so grateful for that shot which numbed the pain. And I know some people have a lot of pain after a root canal, not me, I have felt amazing from then on. THANK YOU Craig! You saved my vacation (and what felt like my life at the time).

2.  Grant unfortunately got sick about halfway through the trip, but he's a tough guy and was determined to still have fun...and luckily he only felt really bad for a couple of days so there was plenty of time for fun still!

With those less than ideal moments out of the way...here were some awesome times we had while in Arizona...

1.  We had a fabulous dinner on Christmas Eve with the family (although not everyone was in town yet) and looked forward to Christmas being a Sunday. I know there are some people that didn't enjoy that fact, but I think it works out perfectly.  Automatic hour about the true meaning of Christmas, a short break between stockings and presents (continue the anticipation throughout the day). Grant and I walked home from church and picked some grapefruits on the way home...one of my very favorite parts of Arizona.

 This was our Arizona Christmas snowman :)  

And then we ate him...and continued to eat all of his friends for 2 weeks straight. I was grateful I'm not on any medications with which grapefruit is contraindicated because this was a staple of my diet. YUM!

2.  All of Grant's siblings (and their spouses and children) were together on Christmas-and for the couple of days after...we drew names and exchanged gifts.

3.  Grant shaved his mustache!! That was my greatest day after Christmas present :) He looked different for a couple of days (because I had only seen him with that caterpillar on his lip for the last 2 months), but after that he just looked cute and normal again, yeah!

4.  We did some really good shopping.  Arizona definitely has better shopping than Bowling Green, KY (another reason why their move to Arizona wasn't a bad one :) After Christmas shopping is one of my favorites! Everything is on serious sale and I had some great gift cards :)

5.  Another family picture day...We took some of the whole bunch (which may be in a post to come), but here are a couple cute ones...

The boys with dad (of course being silly)...

...and add in a few nephews. One good looking bunch!

6.  I did a pretty good job running while I was down there (no excuses with such nice weather), but the whole family wanted some exercise one day so we decided to go for a hike.  I will admit that I am not one who sees the "beauty" in the desert...but I did find some comedy...

Although I don't think the desert is necessarily beautiful, I do think that the scenery is intriguing and fun to look at for awhile. Find the red-tailed hawk in the sea of cacti below...

 

We did about a 3 mile hike to a "cave" at the top of a mountain (where there were rumored to be a family of chipmunks living)...however, once we got to the top I was a little disappointed in what they called a cave, and Gavin was disappointed that the chipmunks weren't actually in the cave (although there were several all around ;) 

Kade and Grant enjoyed some time in the shade of the cave.

Just a really cute picture...Kade cheesing it up :)

 Gorgeous day in Gilbert...wished I had a little more water, but definitely enjoyed my trail mix which consisted of Haribo gummy bears and chewy Jolly Ranchers :)

7. Big shout out to Jen for doing my hair (and putting up with my indecisiveness)...clearly I changed very little about my hair, but the trim and color was awesome!

8.  Got to spend a lot of time with Grant (which I loved)-especially now that he actually looks like Grant again! He got a new tripod for Christmas so on our last day there, we played with his camera, tripod, self-timer, etc in the backyard...

He got some pretty cool shots!

We got home Tuesday, Grant started back to clinic the next day, and I worked a couple of 12 hour shifts to start to make up for our money spent! I start school again this week and life will be back to "normal."  :) :(